I was craving beef.. and good beef not just sucky food court steaks, after reading Aook's blog on her pilgrimage to Mortons. Decided that Botak jones, with their fantastic burgers at reasonable prices deserved a visit to resolve beef cravings....

Wasnt disappointed in the slighted. Ate their double botak burger with cheese.. YUMMMMMMIIIIEEEEEEE.... unfortunately had to share it with hubby, cos he dint believe i could finish a double. i ate 1.5 patties, and he had to make do with the remaining half, most of the fries and the coleslaw.. Their patties are so mouthwateringly scrumptitious, juicy, succulent, flavourful... really really good BEEF. ahhh.. u r soooo missing out if you dont eat beef - i pity u.

but, best part is we discovered a little gourmet coffeeshop tucked away in Toa Payoh!! Although tucked away in some inaccessible part of TP, basically the industrial estate cafeteria, the place was cool, airy, clean and spacious. A much better place to enjoy Botak Jones than their AMK outlet (which is a pretty DINGY coffee shop ewww). Almost all stores served some form of gourmet food (ie.. priced abt 6 to 10).

Besides Botak Jones, there was an Italian cafe (run by an Italian cook no less) called il Piccolo. We dint manage to try it, but pizzas and pastas start from ard 6. And these are proper italian named pizzas and pastas, not your sickening american 'hawaiian' pizza types. The menu read like something from Spizza. There was also Thai, Japanese (which seemed popular) and a desert shop called Chocolate Hearts. Tried a belgian waffle with chocolate dip ($2.40). The waffle was reasonable, but the dip was pretty good! Generous and thick choc! yum. cutlery provided was fork and knife for the waffle, and a spoon for scooping out the choc fondue if there was any remaining after the waffle (quite likely). For drinks, hubby had the iced kopi, while i took the iced milo from the drink store both at 80cents each, which was pretty thick and yummy.

Will definately revisit the coffee shop.. this time, will order the double botak burger (without sides), and maybe can find space for the tiramisu and panna cotta which iL Piccolo recommended.

oh, and Botak jones now has a sister outlet called Brewski Jones also at the coffee shop.. seems magaritas are the recommendation and things will prob get real swinging after dark at this Toa Payoh food centre.

A couple of links i found on iL Piccolo.. we saw the chef at the coffee shop!

http://www.stomp.com.sg/stfoodiesclub/hawkerfare/11/index.html
http://jadeite.ketsugi.com/2007/11/12/il-piccolo/

Nice! Really good graphics (although i havent played PC games in a looong while). Pretty intuitive keyboard and mouse movements, so you just focus on playing the game and not figuring out which key to press. I got the mouse and key board movements down in about half hour of play which is pretty quick for a game idiot like me. Only played it for 2 hrs or so... so far, killing monsters have been easy (which is part of the attraction for me, we dint even die once!), but im sure it gets a lot harder later.

We really bought it for mom, who is planning to switch from diablo to this.. she's still hving problems with the coordination and the very 3D views, but im sure she'll get it eventually. Whats cool is you can look in all directions, left right up and down, and i bet theres lots of secrets to explore in the game if you really take the time to play it.. loads of nooks and crannies and stuff. Overall, it the easy movements really let you concentrate on playing the game and hving fun.

But, i still dont think i'll play it on a regular basis.. just too many monsters, and dark places and evil looking creatures for my taste. ;p as per almost all games out there. and too much risk of dying. im really risk adverse and it hurts when i die in any game!!!

Hiak. Really bad rating i know. The only reason it got 2 stars instead of 1, was cos the silver surfer was really quite cool graphics wise, and cos Jessica Alba was really pretty.

Otherwise.. my personal opinion was the show had bad acting, the worst possible scripts, and the most 1 dimensional characters i've seen in my life. TCS has characters that are more robust! And im specifically refering to the army general (not sure what exactly his rank was). Unbelievable such an imbecilic character could ever have made it to his rank, and made it on such a show. For half his conversations, i turned to look at hubby in fake horror - as in OMG who wrote the script!

And Mr. Stretchy (K i duno his character's name either!) - err, the ONLY scientist in the world who can save the world!? Hellooo? Earth calling to Fantastic 4!?

Sigh. Lucky we watched it on a weekday and paid only $7. I think it was worth just $3.50. Anyway, this just represents my opinion, so please dont flame me if you think otherwise. I dint watch the 1st installation and hv never read the comic in my life.

Ambience - 4 star
Service - 2.5 star
Food - 3.5 star of 5 star

Ate at the restaurant on Sunday evening, a very belated celebration of hubby's birthday long passed - celebrated only after he finally got his exam results, took all his certifications, completed the million and 1 other things on our checklist.

The standard of food hasnt really dropped, I must say, the rating is so poor probably because we made the wrong food selections, (as recommended by the waiter - who was as horrendous as the food.)

We ate some proscuitto starter ($26 bucks!) consisting of a few thin slices of "20 month old" proscuitto ham (which had a weird taste), a few slices of melon fruit, and a few mixed salad leaves. Please dont order this dish ever. Stick to the calamari. We saw mountain of calamari on the tables of pple who made better choices.

The mushroom soup was good.

On recomendation of the very terrible waiter called Sam - an extremely pompous, overbearing, obnoxious, ass kisser, uugh, it was our misfortune to sit at a table that was under his section. All other waiters were great. Hence the 2.5 star cos of Sam - we ordered a diavlio pizza (or something like that) as recommended by him. Parma ham, parma ham and more parma ham - right after our disastrous hammy starter. Very salty. Even the olives were salty. If that was the best pizza toppings they had.. well.. i did definately expect better.

We also ate lasagna ($24), which was reasonably tasty, but *very very small*. Very very very small. Measure out 6cm by 13cm, and u get the picture. Highly disappointing.

Wont be visiting that restaurant again for a loooooooong while..

i really like the mushrooms appetizer, and tried their sizziling sirlion steak the other day. really yum. They cut up the steak for u though, so thats kinda weird if u like to see a whole chunk of meat. and i asked for medium well, and it came medium well on a hot plate, but by the time i was a quarter thru, it became well done! but still delicious la. argh mouth watering laio.

Dont bother with their deserts though. ex-and-ordinary not ex-tra-ordinary.

Wha! If you are hungering for american western fare similar to the type u'll find at brewerks at a fraction of the price, this is the place!!! Its seriously good american food set in a hawker centre environ.
We ate a Botak Jones burger ($6.50 set meal) and a giant beef dog ($7.50 set meal). Its the type of place that bothers to weigh the amount of meat ur getting. Now i forever know where to go to satisfy my cravings for yummy sausages at a place that wun bust my budget!!!

http://www.botakjones.com/

Went to the one at AMK. GO early. Restaurant-type waiting time for food, and super popular hawker center store type of queue. To finish your meal at 7pm, make you ur're there by 5.30.

Went for high tea on a saturday afternoon. Tea begins at 3pm and ends at 5.30pm. Cost, 32+++ (with 15% off for HSBC, and 10% off for other cards) Reservations are recommended for this as tea seems to be very popular. As i was shown to my seat, i noticed pretty much ALL the tables had "reserved" placed on them, and the glasses of water was filled, awaiting arrival of the diners.
The layout of the cafe is pretty nomal... decent chairs and tables for a hotel of this class, but nothing really flashy (unlike the newly decorated places like the Line and stuff). The place could do with an update soon i guess.
The dining area was not large, and actually quite cramped with tables and chairs. the buffet area was not large either, with everything compacted well into 1 long buffet spread, and 2 rectangular free standing areas.
Now onto the food :
1. Tim sum - i felt this was so -so only.. items served were cabbage rolls (?!??! wat the heck is that!), gyoza, shanghai bun (chive filled xiaolongbao), fried char siew bun, crab cake. I ate the gyoza (disaster), Shanghai bun ( i hate chives), crab cake (what is that mush!!?)
2. pre-made waffles and toppings. Dint try.. the waffles looked kinda hard, but OK overall. no ice cream for toppings.
3. salad and cold appetizers. the usual shrimp and some vegetables kinda stuff.. i dint try any of this either, but there was about 5 differnt kinds of cold appetizers.
4. sandwich platters. quite a number of mini open faced sandwiches with cream cheese, ham, tuna, egg, cheese... Tried the normal ham and another cheese one. They were OK. quite tasty.
5. Precut cakes. too many and looked cheap against the full cakes, so dint try. alot alot of precut cakes
6. full cakes. woohoo. this was good. Choc fudge (yum), greentea tiramisu (yum), caramel (yum), pecan and nut (yum). Also assorted cheese cakes which i dint try either.
7. Glasses with little jellies. Again quite a spread, assorted colors and flavours. Tried the almond jelly with logan.. ok la.. not much to comment on. Almond was slightly fakey.
8. Donuts and scones. Dint try, no space.
9. Sushi. quite a failure. Rice was kinda hard and dry and so was the topping on the sushi. There were cold prawns in the sushi platter. Ate lots of those. Not the freshest, but pretty good. NO SASHIMI.
10. 2 types of soup, cant remember laio.
11. laksa. dint try, but it wasnt recommended by friends who tried.

Overall... the spread is very overwhelming. and by the time u eat 1 item of each and figure out that it really isnt that great, its kinda too late to eat the nice stuff, cos u are soo sooo soooo full.
Service however was pretty impeccable, but that might be due to the IMF being in town. When i made the reservation, i was told there would be salmon sashimi. But this was not to be. So a complaint was made, and they brought us quite a huge plate of sashimi (but still less than we would have eaten should it have been in the buffet.) That was pretty nice, but not as nice as if we had gone to somewhere else where they really did serve sashimi?

In general, the cakes were the only really really good item. Everything else was a little substandard. If the price was 20, and they only served the cakes, i would have given it 5 stars.

For a better meal, Oscars at conrad is much more recommended for dinner.

As of sept 14 high tea listing:

regent (tea lounge?) - 1.30 to 5.30 $33+++ english tea
goodwood - 2-5pm 35+++ english tea
goodwood - 2.45-5pm $20.80+++ nonya high tea (kuey, mee siam, kuey pie tee)
marriot (think its the cafe) - 32+++ 3pm to 5.30pm, international
(sandwiches, tim sum, noodles?)
mandarin (triple three) - 33+++ 3-5pm, international (western + local)
oriental (melt) - 28+++, 3-5.30, english
conrad (lobby lounge) - 25+++, 3-6pm , english (desert buffet,
sandwichs and scones served to table)
four seasons (one ninety) - 39+++, 12-5pm, local, chicken rice, lasksa,
sushi, thai
hyatt (lounge) - english, 2-5pm 28+++
shangrila (rose veranda) - international, local, english, japanese,
12-3pm, 3.30 -6pm, 36+++

No hightea at pan pac, and ritz carlton is wayyyy over budget at 40+ or isit 50+?

Wah.. this actually should go under links, but i tot i'd put a comment to explain the link. This singaporean lass seem to have single-handedly reviewed over 1000 different food places in Singapore! Amazing. I dint go thru the entire list, cos theres a lot!! I cant say i agree with all her reviews, but she certainly seems to have gotten down the yummiest types of food at pretty popular places. At the least its a good list to reference if u cant decide what to eat or where to go. Some of the pics are pretty mouthwatering...

http://www.solopianoradio.com/

Online web radio playing piano solos only..
Its really nice.. plus the fact they have an auto refresh webpage that tells u whats the song playing now. Of course theres a link to purchase that album.. but why not? Lots of online radio stations, some arent too good, but this is great for piano solos..

Additional comments -
I've upped this to 5 stars, cos this is the 3rd day im listening in.. and this station is absolutely wonderful. I cant recommend it enuf. At 56kbps, is really clear, hardly lags, and on winamp where i can set the equalisers.. i feel im listening to almost CD quality music. There are no ads, save for a guy once in a while prompting u in a really soothing tone to go to their site to see the "whats playing" and donate or subscribe to the pay station to keep it running. The music selection is SUPERB. Great variety, gorgeous pieces, but all keeping in with a similar theme, so u dont get jarring changes.

Seems the free connections are limited only to 1700, but its no problem to listen in the day (at work if u r allowed) cos i guess most of US is asleep. At night, need to try a few times to get through, but sometimes fail to get in unfortunately. Listened to it at night last nite 10pm to midnight.. soooo soothing and serene. And listening to it now. absolutely wonderful. all time favorite station.

Woo.. 32+++ a head i think. Buffet again, this time aunt's birthday.
The crabs were good. large and fresh. family of 4 cleaned up 4 plates of crab, each with 2 crabs per plate. Hawhaw.. yup, ur looking at the gluttons here.
Crabs were mid sized abt 10 cm body width. Chilli crabs only on their alacarte buffet menu, as they changed their menu from the usual pepper crab we had the last time we were there. Well good for me as i actually prefer chilli to pepper. The sauce was decent too.. enough sweet and sourish zang, together with a good dose of spicyness.
We also ate softshell crab and oatmeal prawns which were tiny!
Salmon sashimi received a complaint from me for smell though.. I think they'd been left out of the freezer for too long. But that was the only sore point, which was more than saved by the crabs.
Being a regular at noble house buffet, i have to say standards vary between visits, but overall, its usually more than value for money for the quality of food and price.

Had a yummy buffet at Oscars at Conrad for a birthday celebration for my Dad.
i ate 11 oysters. First time at a buffet where they actually lost money on me. 11 oysters is testimony to how yummy the oysters were.. i wun eat even 1 if it isnt fresh. This was pretty good, freshly shucked cleaned and served. There was also crab, prawn, sashimi (tot that was just soso- they shd hv been put on ice!) cheese platter, soup, salad (heard thats yum, but no space for veggies ;p) and the usual beef, chicken fish in all types of styles for the mains. deserts were pretty solid too, but after 11 oysters, unfortunately couldnt each that much. Deserts were the usual cakes and odd tasting sweets and mousses in little shot glasses that r too sweet to stomach.. and 6 or so ice cream flavors with loads of toppings.. as well as a FANTASTIC fresh baked crepe and waffle station... Wooohh.. waffle with loads of maple syrup topped with a really good strawberry icecream and choc marbles and almonds.. =P~~~~~~

ok.. we off to buy a waffle iron laio.. i think the waffles were the best. pity i only had space for 1!!!!!!!!!

oh and price.. a relatively reasonable $43+++. relatively reasonable compared to the $60 and $80 places at many of the other hotels. seems this place is pretty unknown, cos only half the tables were filled on a sunday night.

Ok, maybe 3.5 stars.

wasnt impressed by this stayer on the best seller list.
As compared to other best sellers i've read (not many i admit), eg memoirs of a geisha, or plain stephen king stuff.. i have to say the writing was just extremely average.

The pace of the book was fast moving, the entire book spanned just like 1 night and 1 day (seems no one had to sleep), and that was really what made it a page turner. That and its easy readability.

The story line.. erm.. really for a more in depth look into alternatives to the usual Christian beliefs, Bloodline of the Holy Grail by Laurence Gardner is a much better book IMHO (1st half only, 2nd half is crap). although i have to admit reading that book is akin to reading a history text, in terms of content, its about a million times more interesting than DVC, and similar notions to DVC is properly supported by supposed "evidence" in existence today.

DVC is just a plain mystery novel which weaves in some controversial claims into its story line.. but the entire thing reads like a total fiction (which it is anyway), so i really dun get what the hoo haa is regarding this book and the religion.

Altogether, cant say it was worth my time spent reading it. No better than a Dean R. Koontz novel.